So I totally forgot to finish this so I'll just post the rest of them here to get it finished
#4. Kingsman: The Secret Service
#3. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
#2. Mad Max: Fury Road
#1. Inside Out
Official top 20
Inside Out
Mad Max: Fury Road
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
Kingsman: The Secret Service
The Martian
Mockingjay Part 2
Woman in Gold
Ex Machina
Spotlight
The Hateful Eight
The Age of Adaline
Trainwreck
Burnt
Black Mass
Joy
It Follows
Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Amy
Crimson Peak
Pitch Perfect 2
Once I saw that this was a Ridley Scott movie, I was immediately excited. I'm not the biggest fan of Matt Damon, But I couldn't have asked for a better person to play Mark Watney. After he gets hit by a satellite, can't be found by his crew, and they're forced to leave Mars without him, the whole country assumed Watney was dead. Little did they know, he was alive, and would stop at nothing to get off the planet. Matt Damon was flawless, intelligent, and hilarious, and supported by the amazing talents of Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kate Mara, and Donald Glover, this was a movie that took the box office by storm. People thought this'd be a great movie, but it exceeded everyone's expectations, with a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, the 10th highest grossing movie of 2015, and the 108th highest worldwide gross of all time. This movie was an absolute adventure from start to finish, and I would suggest everyone watch this movie when you get the chance., because it's spectacular.
10. The Hateful Eight: This movie was a great way to end the year. Quentin Tarantino's 8th film was one of his best. It was a little slow to start but when it did, it exploded. Samuel L. Jackson and Jennifer Jason Leigh both gave spectacular performances and made us both love and hate 2 completely out of this world western characters. A true jaw dropper, and even though it was 2 hours and 47 minutes long, I wish it would've been longer.
9. Spotlight: A movie that was loved by many critics, Spotlight is the story of the the Spotlight team at the Boston Globe in 2001 that investigated a Boston priest that had molested more than 80 boys and had gotten away with it, and the team made it their mission to show what really happened and why the church was covering it up. Rachel McAdams and Michael Keaton gave flawless performances and this movie and its cast deserve every nomination and award it receives.
8. Ex Machina: Domnhall Gleeson's character Caleb Smith has been chosen to be the human component in a Turin test to determine AI robot Ava's capabilities, lead by Oscar Isaac's character Nathan Bateman at his remote home, who is the CEO of Caleb's company. But as the movie goes on, Ava becomes more self-aware and decides to try to make an escape and deceive both men. Ex Machina is a sci-fi masterpiece at it's core and Oscar, Domnhall, and Alicia Vikander all give perfect performances in a movie that shows everyone how sci-fi is REALLY done.
7. Woman in Gold: Another dark horse of 2015, it's the story of an elderly Jewish woman trying to reclaim her family heirlooms from the Nazis. She gets the help of a young lawyer named Randy Schoeberg, played by Ryan Reynolds. They both embark on a long legal battle to receive her family's prized paintings and many other possessions, but it proves to be difficult as Austria considers the possessions to be national treasures. Helen Mirren gives a heartfelt performance that really makes you feel for everything she's going through mentally and emotionally, and Ryan Reynolds gives a very strong performance alongside her.
6. Mockingjay Part 2: The end to the Hunger Games series, it started off at the exact moment Part 1 ended. Everyone had sky high expectations for the movie, and I like to believe that it met those expectations. This movie was all about war, whereas Part 1 was about the politics of the situation. Jennifer Lawrence gives a perfect performance as Katniss once again, and this movie was everything I wanted it to be. The deaths, the traps, the suspense, Peeta's manufactured hatred of Katniss and Katniss and her team trying to knock some damn sense into Peeta while also trying to prevent him from being a detriment to the team. It was an overall well put together movie and a satisfying ending to an amazing series.
20. Pitch Perfect 2 - This movie had A LOT of ground to cover if it wanted to be better than the original. It didn't make that ground up, as everyone had sort of expected, but it still managed to be a hilarious movie and it gave queen Hailee Steinfeld the attention she deserves.
19. Crimson Peak - A bit of a letdown since they advertised it as being much closer to the horror genre than it actually was, it was still a fantastic movie. Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska were amazing and thankfully took the spotlight away from Tom Hiddleston and Charlie Hunnam. It was a thrilling romance movie with terrifying ghosts thrown in, with a twist that made my jaw drop to the floor.
18. Amy - A documentary about the life and career of the one and only Amy Winehouse. If you didn't care much for her as you walked into the theater, you cared about her when you left. It looked deep into her music, her controversies, and her interviews. It showed you what was really happening both inside her and behind closed doors while everything was unraveling around her.
17. Man From U.N.C.L.E. - I walked into this with low expectations because the amount of old people that wouldn't shut their mouth about the TV show it was based on was infuriating, but goddamn were those expectations exceeded. I'm not the biggest fan of spy movies, but this wasn't your average corny spy movie. It brought intelligence, it brought witty humor, it brought sarcasm, it brought everything. Henry Cavill's performance as a kickass snarky agent with a dry sense of humor was more than worth everyone's time.
16. It Follows - The saving grace of the horror genre in 2015. Through all the poor excuses for horror movies such as Woman in Black 2, Insidious 3, and The Gallows, we got this gem. It Follows wasn't just some typical big-budget horror movie that focused on nothing but starpower and jump scares. It gave me genuine chills throughout the whole experience, and it left me looking over my shoulder every 2 minutes.
15. Joy - If you wanna talk about a movie with completely surprising mixed reviews, it's this one. As Christmas got closer, everyone was getting more and more excited for this movie because it was from the same crew as Silver Lining's Playbook and everyone thought that it'd be a flawless movie, until the advance critic reviews started flowing in, giving it a rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes. I walked in still being excited for it, but with much lower expectations than I had the week before. I still was able to leave the theater pleased with the whole thing, Jennifer Lawrence gave another great performance and her chemistry with Bradley Cooper really grabbed your attention by the balls. Although the mom and half-sister were 2 of the biggest cunts I've ever seen, I still loved this rags to riches story.
14. Black Mass - I really not a fan of Johnny Depp, but Black Mass changed my opinion of him a lot. This was another movie that just left your jaw dropping over and over again, and it really pulled you into the life of a Boston gangster in the 70s. Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson, and Joel Edgerton all gave amazing performances in this story of one of the most dangerous gangsters in U.S history.
13. Burnt - One of the dark horses of this ranking, I really didn't have any idea I would love this movie as much as I did. I walked in thinking it'd be ok but it was a masterpiece. You see Bradley Cooper be this over the top chef trying to run his 3rd restaurant and you see how intense it really gets for anyone and everyone in the kitchen of a first-class restaurant. I love seeing and learning about the culinary industry, and Burnt just took you deep inside what really happens to people when the pressure gets to them.
12. Trainwreck - Fuck I love Amy Schumer. Trainwreck was a typical take on a love story flipped on it's head. This movie even gave us great and hilarious performances from John Cena and Lebron James. The scene where Amy and John were at the movie theater was probably the funniest scene in a movie all year. It left me cackling from start to finish and I never get tired of this perfect movie.
11. The Age of Adaline - Another dark horse this year, this movie really took everyone by surprise. Blake Lively crashes her car into a lake and then she gets struck by lightning and now she'll never age another day? Okay yeah sure. But god this movie just struck at your emotions repeatedly and Blake Lively gave an absolute top notch performance. You really felt for her as you watched her have people enter her life and then pass on and while she also tried to keep her dilemma a secret from the press and the police, it was a real tearjerker.
2015 was a big year for movies, and I was both lucky and unfortunate enough to be able to see 86 of them in theaters, so I will be posting my top 20 of 2015. If you'd like to be tagged so you can agree/disagree, let me know (it's not gonna be separate blogs for each movie, it'll be 7: 20-11, 10-6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. I believe the top 5 all deserve their own attention)
Popular movies that you won't see on the list due to either me choosing not to see them, my theater lost it before I had a chance to see it, or because they never came to a theater anywhere close to me:
- Furious 7
- Dope
- Magic Mike XXL
- Terminator Genisys
- Ant-Man
- Paper Towns
- Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
- Fantastic Four
- Straight Outta Compton
- Room
- Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension
- Spectre
- Carol
- Creed
- The Danish Girl
Season 2 will also be characters, but it'll be Games vs. Movies. Cast has already been determined and will be up soon. PYN to be tagged when polls go up!
PYN if you wanna be tagged in the top 5
PYN to be tagged in the upcoming posts
Daisy has been eliminated, which means QUEEN TOADETTE WINS!